On Monday, April 21, 2025 Dennis Thompson a HealthDay Reporter announced a story of a man named Chris Vogelsang who had a long terrible fight with cancer. About fourteen years ago, the 70 year old man was first diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma. His cancer had returned twice while fighting against several rounds of different treatments that consisted of a full blown stem cell replacement. He stated that his energy levels were very low, while he was losing weight and had constant night sweats. He had then discovered that he was 90% involved with lymphoma cells within his bone marrow. His all time question was "What do I have to do to get through it so I can get on with my life?" The answers turned out to be a cutting edge treatment that very few Americans had known about. It was a CAR T-cell therapy that uses advanced gene therapy to teach a person's immune system how to target and destroy their cancer. However only about two-thirds of Americans (65%) are unaware of this personalized cancer treatment which is unfortunate. During CAR T-cell therapy, doctors are able to extract hunter/killer immune cells called T-cells from an individuals blood. Then lab technicians analyze a person's cancer and find targets on their cancer cells that could be used to find and kill them. The techs are able to genetically engineer the T-cells to seek out the specific targets and attacks the cancer, when the immune cells are then put back in the individuals body in their IV. The results of CAR T-cell therapy have been highly promising with more than half of lymphoma patients achieving remission. For the time being CAR T-cell therapy is only approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for only certain types of blood cancers, however doctors are trying to work on ways that will extend this personalized therapy so that it can be used to treat solid tumors as well. This is such a huge improvement to medicine, it is unfortunate that this type of treatment is not widely known or used to help treat patients.
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